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We all have bookshelves. Do you wonder what your neighbor’s bookshelves look like? Do they rival yours, or are yours so beautifully stocked most people would be envious? There’s a fun Tumblr site called Share Your Shelf that allows people to upload photos of their bookshelves to see how we all live and what we’re reading. It’s fun and very revealing. What do YOUR bookshelves say about you?

A shot of one set of bookshelves in the Children’s Area. One shelf looks neat, the other could use straightening.

Many people have limited space in their homes, and storage can become a problem. But what if your bookshelves could help you stay organized AND give you more room to move? Orla Reynolds is a designer who has solved just that problem with her “As if from nowhere” bookcases.

The bookcases hold four chairs and two small tables which can be pushed together to form a larger one. Pulling the chairs and tables from the shelves won’t disturb your books and almost blend right in when they are full of books. How smart is that?

Bookshelves are often boring things, just simple stacks of wood or glass that hold items (such as books) in an upright position for display. But what if they could be dazzling pieces of artwork that not only hold your books, but make your living space more interesting or even beautiful? How about some of these:

The Fairy Tale Shelf looks plain enough, just a simple rectangle on your wall when a book is placed on top. But when you remove the book, a gorgeous butterfly image appears on your wall. The shelf is cut in such a way that once light hits it (when the book is removed), it casts a shadow on your wall in the shape of a butterfly. Creative and pretty at the same time!

The upside down bookshelf is actually something you can make on your own. It only requires a simple piece of wood, brackets, stretchy wide fabric elastic and a few other items to create something that looks impossible. (The books are actually held on by long pieces of the fabric elastic hidden inside the book covers. All of the instructions are available on the website here.

A honeycomb bookshelf, designed by Sean Yoo, makes use of nature’s own designs. You can stack these shelves to create a larger storage area and books can be taken out on either side, so this would make a great room partition for a smaller apartment.

You can see many more great designs for bookshelves on the site Incredible Things right here. You might be inspired to try out something new for your home. Any of them would certainly spark conversation!

Think your eyes are playing tricks on you? Not so. These bookshelves are meant to test your brain, to make it work in ways that it doesn’t normally. Designer Bjorn Jorund Blikstad hopes to challenge users of his unique shelves into re-thinking the way we use shelves. Called Second and a Half Dimension Shelves, they appear flat, sideways, forward and at all angles, meant to invoke a feeling about the way it looks, unlike regular bookshelves which we never think twice about. Blikstad believes that challenging us to think about the shelves differently represents how we should look at the contents as well: books are more than just paper and ink. The contents can be quite challenging.

If you’d like to see more of these great shelves, you can find them over at Yanko Design.

Here’s a great, whimsical bookend by Artori Design. Not only is it functional, but it will act as a conversation piece! There are two models, both of which have a couple escaping the “falling” books. The bookend is a piece of metal set at an angle and the far end inserts into the inside of a book. It works best if the book is a hardcover, for more support, and the bookend remains invisible.

There are two models available… the one above and another with a single person with his arms out to prevent being crushed. Both are funny and very creative. You can see more of Artori Design ideas on their website here.